GEORGETOWN, Texas – The #12 Southwestern women’s
volleyball team closed out their regular season action by hosting
the Halloween Volleyball Tournament and dominated their home court
winning all four games to extend their win streak to 28.
The Pirates opened up play on Friday afternoon against a scrappy
Concordia University – Wisconsin squad. SU found a way to
take game one 25-23, but dropped the second set 15-25 after hitting
an uncharacteristic -.043 percent. Southwestern rebounded in the
third set but narrowly fell 23-25 to go behind 2-1 for the
match.
After a backrow kill by senior Audra Gentry got the Pirates amped
back up, SU cruised through the final two sets 25-18 and 15-8 to
keep their win streak intact.
Day one closed with Southwestern facing St. Thomas out of Houston
and started out in true Pirate fashion, winning the first and
second set 25-16, 25-13. The Celts snuck up to take the third game
24-26, but SU got back to work to close out the match 3-1 with a
25-14 set four win.
Saturday, Southwestern started their final day of regular season
action against Loyola University – LA. After a slow start saw
the Pirates drop game one 26-28, SU slowly got back in the grove to
win three straight sets 25-20, 25-14, 25-16. Seniors Ali Zein-Eldin
and Gentry were determined to make the most of their final day of
regular season action as a Pirate. Zein-Eldin led with 10 kills and
had a .248 hitting percentage while Gentry had eight kills with a
.400 hitting percentage.
The final match of the evening faced Southwestern against a tough
Texas Lutheran squad. Prior to the match, SU honored its five
seniors Gentry, Zein-Eldin, Sam Lingamfelter, Reese Cisneros and
Lauren Brown (pictured). This group has been the most successful
class since the program joined Division III and have an impressive
record of 127-29 overall and 49-12 in the SCAC so far in their
career.
The Pirates edged out TLU in the first set 25-23 before exerting
their dominance over the Bulldogs by recording an astonishing .433
team hitting percentage to take the second set 25-8. With the crowd
behind them Southwestern closed out the match and tournament with a
25-16 win in the final set to take the hotly contested match
3-0.
Sophomore Lindsay Thompson led the team in kills for the weekend
with 43 while five other Pirates had double digit kills. Thompson
also recorded 15 blocks to lead Southwestern. Sophomore Christina
Nicholls logged 161 assists while senior Sam Lingamfelter had 97
digs.
